I've found a deep and real love for sewing and quilting! The only thing that I enjoy more is connecting with all of you about it!
I have become totally obsessed with our baby tortoises- so ridiculously cute!
I am a mom of 2 boys and wife to a great guy!
With my full time job, family and my love of crafting, I am pretty busy most of the time! Add Rheumatoid Arthritis, unfortunately, and you have Me! I try not to let it get me down, though I Do walk much like our tortoises, at times! haha

InterActive ScrapChat- How it works!

Thursday, September 13, 2012

The center pic above was the Last one of the day, you can totally see his exhaustion! lol - The pic to the -left and down a little- of that was the First pic of the day. haha

Hi Everyone!I thought I would update this post.. I was quite new to blogging when I posted it in 2012 and didn't include many of the details. Now, these years later (almost 2017) I realize that I would like to remember as much as I can from this event and others! I hope you enjoy my additions. :)So I FINALLY got the nerve to work on my 4 year olds birthday layout (Remember, this post is from Sept. 2012;) He is now 8 years old! haha)!I have had these pictures for awhile now and have been worried that it wouldn't be what I had pictured in my head..I have never planned a party before this. Ok, a small birthday party with a bit of family was about as close as I'd ever gotten. I was nervous but at the same time- READY and eager to tackle something so EASY compared to the surgery that we were preparing for.. My little guy had major heart surgery on January 12th (2012).We found out that he had a heart murmur due to missing almost an entire wall on the right side of his heart. We actually found out because my 7 year old had accidentally tripped me while holding Calvin going into the grocery store. At the subsequent ER visit, from smashing his head on the ground, the Doctor kind of laughs, "Oh, did you know he has a murmur"? ummm What!?.. Thank God the head bump was nothing major but we now had something much bigger than a bump on the head, to deal with!We played the "wait and see" for about a year.. (I guess) it was *possible for his heart to try to repair itself. Except that in my little guys case the whole wall was almost nonexistent.. That's a pretty big repair job.. for such a little body!!We heard about the 2 options that were 'maybe' possible and had to make the hardest decision of my life.. Do we try for that almost (too good to be true) noninvasive "fix" or do we fix it like we mean it and never want to have to deal with it- ever again!? This felt so weird to me.. As I was making these decisions I was imagining saving my future son, when he has a family, a job and a LIFE, from having to go through MAJOR heart surgery.. He would NOT have bounced back nearly as quickly, if it were found later in his life..(I was also newly divorced from his dad.. so I had to convince him that my reasoning was sound, too. The whole thing was very difficult to take. Especially when I really didn't WANT my baby to go under the knife!! - all of a sudden I had to Sell it...)The noninvasive option ended up not being an option after all, because of the fact that it wasn't a hole, more of a missing wall.. I had already decided that the idea of having something plastic inside my baby's heart that (I wasn't convinced) couldn't just move, if jarred hard enough, wasn't the way I wanted to go.However.. That meant that They would have to go the whole 9 yards and stop my baby's heart and have a machine breath for him.. I thought I would die having to make that decision. They would use a piece of the outside of his heart to repair the wall, it heels right in place as if it was never missing at all. -That sounds like the kind of fix that lasts a lifetime!! This Post Shows a Peek into That Hospital Visit and the FIRST Thing he did When he got Home. (The 2nd day in the hospital all he wanted to do was play a video game with his big brother, sniff sniff..) Needless to say he was spoiled like crazy while going through all of this, haha. (He liked my soft blanket better than the hospitals and I totally gave it up without even a thought. lol) Our friends and family made a huge difference for us in making things as easy as possible. <3So in the YEAR beforehand that I was stressing waiting and worrying I decided that I HAD to preoccupy myself with something (and it would have to be pretty big too..) or I would go absolutely insane..His birthday is St. Patrick's Day (March 17th, and we are part Irish, so I totally LOVE that!! - Until he turns 21...eeeek!!).. Given that his surgery was almost exactly 2 months before that, I thought it would be the perfect time to celebrate (and Big)!Thus was born- Cal's Back and He's 4!! That's what I put on the invites and literally what I called it every time I could. I just loved it (and still do..haha)! lolHe had about 30 guests, a pinata, crafts, and Friends - That makes for one happy kid! Plus the theme- of course- was green, so whoever wore the MOST green won a BIG candy bar. lolIf you can even believe this..- This miracle boy was in the hospital for 4 days and he was up and running (Literally!!) by day 6.. It was CRA-ZY!!You could not even tell that he had just undergone a major heart surgery! He didn't want any pain reliever, I had to "force" him the first night home. The second day, he said no thanks.. I couldn't believe it.*Update- Even if this was the hardest thing I have ever had to do- to date- the memories that surround it are so precious to me, I never want to forget. =)So, now that I have filled in a LOT of blanks I can move onto the Layouts that I made back in 2012. I still love scrapbooking but sewing and quilting has kind of pushed it out of mind for now.. hahaI LOVE how the first page turned out but the second still needs some work to be what I want it to be.. I'll repost that once I get it straight!*Update- Except that I still haven't tried to fill in the 2nd page...yet..Dang

My little guy was born on St. Patty's day and he happens to LOVE the color green! He also happens to be the luckiest kid around, so we played it up to the fullest! I used Pear and Topiary card stock, figuring that the shamrocks would be enough activity without adding additional patterned papers.. I hope you like it and my update!Please feel free to comment if you have any at all! =)Happy Scrappin'! =)

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

I am sorry that I have been such a bad blogger! This summer really flew right by, unbelievable! I will be allowing time for some projects that I can post so hopefully I can keep it flowing and post on a regular basis!!So anyway! I decided that I wanted to butter our teachers up a little bit at the beginning of the year, can't hurt, right?! =) ...and who doesn't LOVE mints!! The 1st one is for my little guy's Pre-School teacher. I used Typeset B&T, thinking the lettering was perfect for his age! I tried to brighten it up because it is a darker paper so I kept with my Crayola theme with the bright colored stamps. I stamped the images that I wanted on colonial paper and cut them all out. Some I applied with my CTMH Bonding Memories glue and some I used my FAVORITE, 3D tape. If you can see the shadow it's 3D, did I mention I LOVE that?! LOLThe 2nd one is for my 3rd graders teacher, boy does SHE need buttering up!! My son's 2nd grade teacher went to First grade this year...hmmm...lolFor his teacher I thought that the bold colors on the colonial paper would really pop, and, it Does! =)I LOVE how they both turned out, and I had NOOOO idea what I was going to do when I started..Not too bad..lol I hope you enjoy!I LOVE comments and questions, please, feel free! =)Have a WONDERFUL first week of school!

All About Me!

I am the mom of 2 boys (9 & 12) and married to a great guy! I work full time and spend every moment that I can behind my sewing machine.
I have Rheumatoid Arthritis but I try not to let that get me down!